Our Mission and Committee of Sponsors

Who We Are. We sponsors of this peace pledge project are individuals of diverse walks of life, ages, and political allegiances. We have all experienced directly or indirectly the terrible consequences of violence. Many among us have worked professionally with people whose lives have been deeply affected by their experiences of violence, including soldiers returning from war, families affected by gun violence, abused women, inmates in America’s jails and prisons, and communities impacted by the testing of nuclear weapons.

What unites us is a shared purpose: to build a world at peace, in which violence is not considered — by nations, communities, or solitary individuals — as a way to solve human problems.

Our Mission. Non-violence is an approach to human affairs that can be taught and practiced in our schools and communities. It should guide our nation’s foreign policy as well. We seek in this campaign to gather peace pledges from two groups specifically: legislators and young people. Legislators at all levels — community, county, state, and nation — are in a position to enact policy to move the world in a peaceful direction. And the intelligence, creativity, and energy of youth are also essential to this cause.

Of course, we welcome the participation of everyone in this peace pledge campaign. Visit the Join Us page of this website for recommendations about how you can participate. See as well the People’s Diplomacy page which explains what we all can do to advance the cause of peace here in America and abroad.

War. War using nuclear weapons threatens the very survival of the human species. As well, the paths of war are enormously expensive, aggrandizing resources that are urgently needed to solve the problems besetting communities across the nation. Militarism also worsens, through its vast use of petroleum and other natural resources, the environmental crisis that is negatively impacting human communities worldwide.

These matters are vitally important to every American, and therefore also to every public official who aims to represent their interest. In our connected world, local interests are bound up with national, and global ones, which means that public officials have to take a much wider range of considerations into account if they are to represent their constituents well.

Domestic Violence. Violent policy abroad is mirrored in civilian life – in the abusive exercise of authority in the nation’s policing and prison systems for instance, and in the prevalence of gun violence in the United States. The first aim listed in the Legislators Peace Pledge is the enforced regulation of the manufacture, sale, transfer, and use of firearms, and adequate funding for community-based violence prevention programs. These programs should prioritize education and rehabilitation.

Peace Building. We support the mission of the nationwide organization Peace Alliance: “taking the work of peacebuilding from the margins of society into the center of national discourse and policy priorities.” We too believe that peace is an issue of high relevance to policy formation at all levels: local, state, and national. See our People’s Diplomacy page.

PeacePledge.World is a project that is sponsored by the individuals below, acting in their own name and not as representatives of any organization or institution.

Alice LoCicero, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist and President, Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence, Division 48 of the American Psychological Association

Peter Barglow, M.D., Former Professor in Residence and Chief of Addiction Medicine, University of California at Davis Medical School; former Director of Substance Abuse Services of the Veterans Administration Northern California Health Care System

To understand and reduce violence in all of its forms, we need courageous, effective political leadership. Political leaders, however, will succeed in advancing the cause of peace only in concert with those whom they represent. Peace is in everyone’s interest, regardless of diverse political allegiances and other differences. Affirmation of this universal interest stands at the heart of this peace pledge project.